Book of JUDAS

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

Athens

Simon’s flight had landed twenty minutes late but the airport wasn’t busy and he cleared Customs quickly. His plan was simple. It was late evening in Greece and all he wanted to do was find a cheap local hotel and get a good night’s rest before locating Anna the next day. This was easier said than done, as his mind was preoccupied with the frightening and macabre escape from Professor Palanski’s house and the pain that still throbbed through his injured hand.

Athens was to be a short stopover. His brother would arrive tomorrow afternoon and together they would make their way to Thailand, with or without this mystery lady whom their grandfather had so passionately supported. He convinced himself to think ahead and found a place to stay near the airport. Simon smiled to himself – he had always been known as the “thinker” in the family. Whereas Philip was confident to the extreme, never afraid to get up and make a speech, or act the lead part in a school play, Simon had always been held back by fear of failure. Whether it was of letting someone down, or making a fool out of himself, he always felt reticent about standing up and being the “real” Simon Trenchard. His older brother recognised his lack of confidence and did all he could to help. On many occasions it would have been easy for Philip to bask in the limelight but he was not that way inclined. He felt protective of Simon and, through a genuine willingness to help, Philip pushed him in a direction that would force him to grow in confidence.

Simon admired Philip’s attitude and the way he calmly reacted to difficult or unusual situations. He always seemed to have an answer or know what to do next.

As Simon grew older, he gained in self-confidence, thanks to Philip’s help. He still felt more comfortable in small groups of his own friends rather than grand occasions where he was expected to circulate and engage in “small-talk” with strangers.

The small yellow taxi dropped him outside the hotel and he checked in for one night. Once in his room, he took out the map that Bairstow had drafted for them detailing the archaeological site north-west of Athens where they could find Anna Nikolaidis. It was recent, thought Simon, spotting the date pencilled in the corner. It should take about an hour to get there, he surmised after getting some help from the girl on the reception desk downstairs. It was getting late. He spoke to his brother in Switzerland briefly on the mobile and scheduled a rendezvous for the following morning before settling down for the night.

The next day he rose early. He had breakfast in the room and packed his belongings back into his carrier bag to check out. The weather was great at this time of year and wearing just chinos and a polo shirt he made his way to the taxi rank. He was pleased to learn that the driver spoke reasonable English as he asked whether or not he could take him to the ancient settlement of Eleusis. The driver looked puzzled for a moment before he realised Simon was referring to the ruins that dated back to the second millennium BC.

The journey took him through the crowded suburbs of Athens before stretching out onto a dual carriageway towards the coast to the west. From the main road they followed the signs for Eleusis and as they edged closer Simon began to really consider for the first time the practicalities of the meeting ahead. He had no clue what she looked like and she would not know him from Adam. There’s every chance this will end in disaster, he thought. At least she’ll be richer for the experience, he concluded, remembering his grandfather’s bequest. That should at least break the ice when I pass on the good news.

Greek “B Roads” were not known for their driving pleasure and the taxi lurched its way along the winding hillside roads to their destination in the Peloponnesus.

As Simon looked out the window, he could see the beginnings of the ruins high up on the hilltops in the distance. The driver confirmed their imminent arrival by leaning over into the back seat and waving at the small village ahead of them. They passed a few yellowy sun-bleached houses on either side of a narrow old high street before the taxi driver pulled up in the town’s main square, which was fronted by an old church with a few shops down each side. Simon dropped his bag on the ground and then handed the cash back through the window to the grateful driver. He paused to watch the taxi leave, dust trailing in the air as the car sped back down the road

Simon threw his bag over his shoulder and made his way to a small shop to ask directions to the archaeological dig that Anna was supposedly managing nearby. With a lot of pointing and gesticulation from the shopkeeper, he gleaned that the path leading up over the hill past the church would take him to what he was looking for. He thanked the man and set off up the dusty track in the blazing midday sun, consoling himself with the fact that at least the ache from his hand was beginning to wear off.

At the top of the hill the view was wonderful. He could see for miles in every direction with the lush, green hills in the distance to the north and the deep blue bay of Eleusis stretching out into the Mediterranean to the west. Simon had always kept himself in good physical shape but the incline of the track was steep and hard going in parts. Panting, he took a swig from his water bottle, happy to pause for a moment and catch his breath. He studied the landscape around him and tried to get his bearings and as his eyes followed the path down the other side of the hill, he spied the ancient Mycenaean ruins that he was looking for. Although a long way off in the distance, he could just make out the leaning Doric columns amongst the latticework of carved out, low level walls. Parts of the remnants appeared to be in good order where the pillars still carried the arches that once made up the impressive colonnade. The journey down the other side was much easier and as he got closer he could make out members of the archaeological team, filling the excavation of the Eleusinian sanctuary like worker ants busying themselves at various corners of the fortification walls.

The remainder of the journey didn’t take long and as he got closer to the settlement he tried to guess which one of the archaeologists could be Anna Nikolaidis. His arrival went largely unnoticed. They were so engrossed with their work that no one had put their head up to see him coming.

“Hello there,” he smiled broadly at a middle aged woman, looking hot and clammy under a grubby, white bandana. “I’m looking for Anna Nikolaidis.”

The woman smiled back.

“Over there,” she said, wiping her forehead and pointing with a trowel in the direction of a crouched figure, enthusiastically brushing earth from the ground at the other end of a channel in the ancient arcade.

Intrigued to meet her at last, he studied her closely as he walked in the shade of a line of pillars. Standing alone, unobserved, he watched her kneeling on the floor of the excavation trying to delicately unearth a fragment of a hidden relic. She worked with passion and minute attention to detail.

He stepped out from the shelter into the blazing heat and moved towards her.

“Anna?”

She sat back on her knees.

“Yes,” she replied, matter-of-factly staring down at her handiwork before looking up at him.

Simon was surprised. The vision he saw in front of him was entirely different from that which he imagined. She was stunningly beautiful despite the dirt and the dust she was working in.

“My name is Simon − Simon Trenchard and I’ve come a long way to see you!”

He suddenly felt slightly tongue-tied by her captivating beauty.

“Oh, sounds important” she said smiling teasingly.

She had been working hard and the unexpected visitor gave her a chance to have a break. She stood up and shook the dirt from her clothes before pulling out a bottle of water that was buried in the backpack alongside her.

Simon put her at about five feet eight. She had shoulder length black hair, a smooth, honey complexion and a figure full of curves and symmetry. Wearing a white sleeveless blouse, she gazed up at him with her large blue eyes.

“Anna I know I’m a stranger and this request sounds unusual but I need to talk to you about something important and I don’t have a lot of time!”

She studied Simon’s face for a couple of seconds, staring at him quizzically.

“Look, I don’t know who you are and I don’t know what you want but if it’s all the same to you I’ll pass on this one.”

She looked up at him with slight suspicion before taking another gulp from her water bottle. Simon realised that he was staring at her. She had deep, penetrating eyes and the olive complexion that was common to the pretty girls that came from this region.

“Look if it’s still important tonight, I’m staying at the Hotel Delphi in the local village,” and with that she knelt back down and resumed the work on the fragment of pottery.

Simon was not prepared to give up so easily.

“I can understand your concern − it’s true that you don’t know me at all but in a strange kind of way we’re related!”

The comment worked. Without looking at Simon, she stopped what she was doing and rocked back resting her hands on her knees.

“What do you mean related?” she said inquisitively.

The word always struck a chord with Anna Nikolaidis. Being an only child had had its difficulties.

She really is beautiful, thought Simon again. His focus had changed. In the morning the meeting set up by Bairstow had been a chore on his way to re-uniting with Philip. In a matter of moments his emotions had been stood on their head. He now considered it his duty to tell her the whole, unadulterated truth and persuade her that their quest was really part of her destiny too.

“I have a story to tell you about a man called ‘Demetri Nikolaidis’ – like yourself an eminent archaeologist in his time…”

The mention of her grandfather’s name brought a frown to her face. Curious now, she stood up and dusted the dirt from the front of her trousers. Hardly any of her relatives remembered her grandfather let alone complete strangers. All she had been told was that he had died, tragically young, in strange circumstances connected with his work.

“Ok, what are you proposing?”

The frown and the look in her eyes made him realise her poise and self-assurance had momentarily slipped and he was briefly exposed to the vulnerability beneath her brittle veneer. This only made her seem more attractive. What she didn’t realise was just how much more Simon knew about her than she of him.

“I have to catch a flight from Athens later on this evening when my brother lands; I only have a few hours − can we go back to the village and talk?”

They stared at each other in the momentary silence. This was the defining moment. If she could not be persuaded then he knew that he must catch up with his brother in Athens. Simon sensed the emotions going on behind the sparkling azure of her eyes. She frowned as she wondered what to do and her look of confusion made him feel like reaching out to protect her. There was no mistaking her beauty, he thought as he studied her pretty, tanned face with her black hair brushed back in a bow.

“Ok,” she nodded finally, and offered her hand to be pulled up from the hole she was working in. She too had a good feeling about him, about this young, handsome Englishman. In fact the same magnetic attraction that was affecting Simon was also playing with the emotions of Anna herself.

Simon watched as she went off to speak to an old bearded man on the other side of the excavation site. How old is she? pondered Simon. He couldn’t recall Bairstow telling him. Transfixed, like most people meeting her for the first time, he stared unashamedly as she walked away with a feminine grace that seemed alien to the working conditions of an excavation site.

A few minutes later she had collected her things and they walked back together up the track to the village on the outskirts of Eleusis. He noticed the disappointed expressions on their faces as they waved goodbye to her. Dedicated historians? Probably, he mused, but he wouldn’t be surprised if many of them were really there because of her energy and allure.

Anna refused Simon’s offer to carry her rucksack. She had noticed the bandage on his hand earlier and enquired about the cause. He quickly passed it off as a silly accident from the day before.

As they strode up the hill, matching one another step for step, they both agreed that they would not discuss the reason for his surprise visit until they were having lunch in the local taverna. Instead on the way back she did most of the talking. The quality of her English was no different from his own and he listened to her tell the story of her childhood.

Her father had died young and she had grown up with her mother in a village close to the Macedonian border in Northern Greece. He listened intently to her life’s tale, wishing he could interrupt and tell her of the bond that existed between them. He too shared the same pain of parents who had died tragically when he was too young to remember them. He winced privately at the memory and let her go on talking.

Anna talked about her schooldays; she had obviously excelled and achieved a great deal in her twenty-nine years. Simon smiled a knowing smile when she mentioned how her luck had changed. Against the odds, she won a place in High School and then became the beneficiary of a full scholarship to the University of Santa Barbara in California to read “History of the Biblical Lands”.

Amazing, he thought. His grandfather, Sir Lawrence, had managed to keep himself behind the scenes for all those years. Later, he would enjoy revealing this part of the story when they discussed why he had come to see her but he knew that not all their conversation would be this easy. How will she react when I tell her how her grandfather died?

Back in the quaint village outside the ruins of Eleusis where the modern world had failed to intrude, Anna asked Simon to follow her as she led the way down a narrow alley off the main square to the local taverna. It had a few wicker tables and chairs protected from the sun by an awning that stretched out from the wall of the white building.

“Inside or out?” asked Simon.

He wanted a private location that was discrete enough to talk without fear of being overheard. However, there was no cause for concern; the taverna was practically empty save for a few staff working behind the long wooden bar.

“Let’s stay out,” she said with a smile.

As they settled, a moustached waiter appeared to take their order. She spoke hurriedly in Greek and the waiter left without showing them the two menus he had been carrying.

“They do great sandwiches here and I think you could do with a beer − am I right?”

“Sounds good,” said Simon smiling back.

“Well, it’s a long way from England to take someone out for lunch − I guess you’d better tell me what you’re doing here, Simon Trenchard,” she said, taking a seat.

The story began. She listened intently as Simon started by telling her about his grandfather’s death and the funeral service. He introduced his older brother Philip and told how they had first learned about her existence at the reading of the will. She learnt about the financial inheritance left to her by their grandfather. Then, having placed their drinks and sandwiches on the table, the waiter departed and he began to describe the legacy that had been left to them, including Anna, in the dying words of his grandfather, Anna’s secret benefactor.

Spellbound, she sat mesmerised as he slowly explained everything. The relationship between their grandfathers unfolded as he recounted how they had worked together for Roland De Vaux, the Catholic Vatican representative who had masterminded the excavation of the scrolls at Qumran. He narrated clearly, leaving out no details. He described the antechamber in the cave they were excavating that revealed the Judas Scroll − the manuscript that confirmed the existence of the Book of Judas – and finally the way they could locate its alleged hidden resting place in the secret labyrinth. Inevitably, he reached the part he was going to find difficult to explain. The part where her grandfather, Demetri, had been needlessly killed falling over the ledge in his efforts to escape the clutches of the Vatican agent.

“Are you Ok?” he asked, watching her sorrowful expression. He suddenly remembered the wrinkled photograph of Sir Lawrence and Demetri with their arms around each other’s shoulders outside one of the caves at Qumran. He reached inside his pack and pulled it out, handing it over to Anna.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she said, looking down at the black and white picture. Both men looked happy.

“I knew very little about him… I knew he was an archaeologist and that my mother could not understand why he had just disappeared. She always hoped he would come back one day − but he never did!”

Simon put his good hand on hers. She looked up.

“I’m Ok − really, please go on,” she whispered in a small voice.

He continued, telling her about his grandfather’s escape back to England and how he began his research into locating the three keys of arkheynia that would ultimately solve the riddle of the scrolls. He watched her face as he explained how the answers would ultimately lead to the entrance to the underground labyrinth where the Book of Judas was allegedly preserved. She sat silently, fascinated as he recounted the tragic tale of how his grandfather had given up his lifelong quest after failing to discover the whereabouts of the final key of arkheynia. Anna shook her head as she heard how its resting place came to light only weeks before his grandfather passed away.

“My brother Philip’s on his way here from Switzerland where he’s been retrieving the Judas Scroll and maps from a bank vault − in fact I’m going to try and call him shortly and find out which flight he’s on.”

He was conscious of the fact that so far he had made the whole affair sound like a swashbuckling romantic escapade. He had a sudden pang of guilt that he was putting a rosy gloss on the adventure because he liked her and he was keen to persuade her to travel with them. In reality he had seen what had happened to the professor and nothing could be further from the truth. He privately scolded himself and determined to paint a more honest picture of the quest ahead.

“You know when I met you at the ruins I told you there was not much time…”

“Yes,” she nodded. His expression had changed.

“It’s not just us who are searching for the Book of Judas.”

He then proceeded to tell the events of the previous day when he had visited Professor Palanski’s house for the second time.

She looked visibly shaken when he described the sight of the Professor nailed to the wall in the shape of a dark angel, his skin peeled and spread out like wings. Simon himself had still not come to terms with the sort of person who could do this. Insane, possessed, demented? Who could do such a thing?

“Whoever did this will now be looking for us and they’ll be tracing our journey. We…” he paused and looked into her eyes. “I… would love you to join us but if you decide not to, then you must at the very least disappear for a while because the very fact we’ve met could put your life in danger.”

“What do you mean?” she asked nervously.

Simon decided to reveal all he knew about the Satanica and their deadly desire to capture the Book of Judas.

“The book is no ordinary manuscript – it’s alleged to contain the commandments and the ritual that will enable the Satanica to release the Devil − once he’s been unlocked then it’s believed that he’ll take his place on earth in the body of a mortal human being and the final battle between good and evil will take place!”

He continued with some of the facts that he had learnt from Professor Palanski and made sure that Anna was left in no doubt as to the deadly nature and mandate of the underground sect. Having explained all he knew about the Satanica, he began to describe the equally sinister and convoluted involvement of the Vatican.

“They’ll also be searching for us − and the book – with the same ruthless passion as the Satanica and they’ll stop at nothing to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. They know its contents would destroy the very foundations on which the church has been built − imagine the reaction of Christians around the world once they know and understand that the Pope and the Vatican have deliberately suppressed evidence for centuries that contradicts the teachings of the bible!”

Ashen-faced, she gulped the rest of her drink and stared out over the hills beyond the village. She had listened silently through most of Simon’s narration as she contemplated the incredible story she was hearing. She sensed that this meeting had just changed the direction of her life. She allowed herself a wry smile, as she remembered getting up that morning and beginning another normal day commanding her team on the archaeological site before this stranger had walked into her midst.

“Anna, I’m sorry to give you so little time − ” he took her hand and looked deeply into her eyes, “but you have to decide whether you want to come with us or not!”

Before she could respond Simon’s mobile phone rang.

“It’s Philip,” he said, standing up to take the call. He wandered away from the table to talk freely to his brother and left her to reflect on what he had just said.

She sat there trying to rationalise everything but it was impossible. With her skills and experience of the Biblical Lands, the search for the Book of Judas would be the challenge of a lifetime, the pinnacle of any career that one could only dream of. However the terrifying machinations of the Satanica and the Vatican, who would do all in their power to prevent them from succeeding were real and deadly. She had never encountered a situation where her life was in threat before and the thought horrified her.

As Simon walked back to their table, winding up the call with Philip, she looked up at him.

“I’ve made a decision − for better or worse, I’m coming with you!” she said and smiled.

“Anna’s decided to join us,” announced Simon into the mouthpiece as he broke into a broad grin. She could sense from the conversation that his brother had also been pleased to hear the news.

Simon reached out and squeezed Anna’s hand while he listened to Philip’s meeting arrangements. A couple of minutes passed before they finally signed off.

“Ok, Philip, we’ll both see you at the airport later on,” said Simon, putting the phone down on the table. She looked up at him expectantly.

“That’s great news, Anna,” he said smiling, “but we’re going to have to get moving. We’re travelling to Thailand tonight.”